Search Results for: Catalog

Recent Webcast: Evaluating Oncogenicity in VSClinical

         June 11, 2020

Abstract Before assessing the clinical significance of a somatic mutation, one must determine if the mutation is likely to be a driver mutation (i.e. a mutation that provides a selective growth advantage, thereby promoting cancer development). To aid clinicians in this process, VSClinical provides an oncogenicity scoring system, which uses a variety of metrics to classify a given somatic mutation… Read more »

Updates to Default Transcripts and Gene Preferences in VarSeq

         June 9, 2020

An under-appreciated area of complexity when looking into the field of genetics from the outside can be found in genes and transcripts. Alternative splicing allows eukaryotic species to have a wonderfully powerful genetic code, resulting in multiple protein isoforms being encoded in a single section of DNA. But when it comes to variant interpretation, different transcripts can result in widely different predicted… Read more »

VarSeq 2.2.1 Release Notes

         April 10, 2020
ClinVar

VarSeq 2.2.1 was released on April 1st and features an upgraded gene annotation capability with new RefSeq genes tracks and an AMP workflow addition: the Drugs and Trials tab. The new RefSeq human genome genes tracks contain updated gene names and the recognition of any MANE (Matched Annotation from NCBI and EMBL-EBI) identified transcripts. VarSeq has been updated to be… Read more »

The New ACMG-Based Trio Tutorial

         April 3, 2020

Our Support Team curates a variety of tutorials to help orient new users to the capabilities of VarSeq. We are happy to announce the team’s new release of the trio tutorial that places emphasis on using the ACMG guidelines. This tutorial gives insight into the proper setup of pedigree structure as well as detailed descriptions of the filter containers and… Read more »

Upcoming Webcast: Using Varseq Templates to Advance and Customize Variant Analysis

         March 23, 2020

Golden Helix ships a variety of templates that are designed to provide a starting point for users to evaluate variants in VarSeq. Naturally, as users become more familiar with the software, there is a desire and necessity to tailor the template design to accommodate a more thorough variant analysis. To add to these template customizations there are several algorithms and… Read more »

Cyber Security Strategies for NGS Testing Labs: Part IV

         February 13, 2020

Golden Helix is in a unique position to provide a secure on-premise analysis solution. This capability is based on two enablers. First, we build our software solutions from scratch and from the ground-up with the assumption that it should run on any operating system and potentially behind firewalls or even without internet access. Second, we provide these solutions on a licensing model based on training and supporting users, not… Read more »

Customizing Your VSClinical Workflow: Part II

         January 27, 2020

Customizing VSClinical ACMG Guidelines Workflow Part 2  In the first part of this series, we covered how VarSeq provides customization of the clinical analysis workflow process. VSClinical’s various customization parameters within the ACMG Guidelines workflow includes the choice of how the internal knowledge base of previous variant interpretations are stored and what considerations go into this choice. In this blog, we… Read more »

Customizing Your VSClinical Workflow: Part I

         January 14, 2020

Clinical labs offer a unique and sophisticated product that is performed repeatedly with high standards of quality. VarSeq was developed to provide labs with the customization required for clinical genetic tests in a repeatable workflow. On top of this, VSClinical offers additional parameters and choices that can be made when designing the test workflow. In this blog series, we will… Read more »

Customer Publications Throughout November 2019

         November 26, 2019
November Publications

November is the month where we pause to reflect on what we are thankful for. At Golden Helix, we are thankful for the many dedicated scientists and practitioners who are tirelessly working on new discoveries to enhance the lives of humans and preserve our food supply in the face of ever-changing conditions in agriculture. As always, we are proud to… Read more »

Reflecting on AMP 2019

         November 14, 2019

Our team has returned from the annual meeting of the Association of Molecular Pathology (AMP 2019), and, as always, I am grateful for all the wonderful experiences we are bringing back with us. The plenary sessions and talks were bountiful, and we were very impressed with the well-organized exhibition. Hats off to everyone involved in planning this great event! Innovation… Read more »

All New VSClinical AMP Workflow Tutorial

         November 5, 2019

We have recently added a tutorial to help introduce customers to the ease and utility of the AMP Guidelines incorporated in VarSeq’s VSClinical package. The AMP Guidelines allow users to sort through available clinical evidence in a streamlined fashion to arrive at final classification and interpretation and then transfer that information into a clinical report. And the AMP Guidelines also… Read more »

VSWarehouse Upgrade: Somatic Variant Analysis via VSClinical AMP Workflow

         October 25, 2019
VSWarehouse Updates

This month’s webcast delves into VSWarehouse with a focus on our new capability of storing somatic variant projects and catalogs built for the AMP Guidelines within VSClinical. If you didn’t have a chance to join us for the live event, please enjoy the video recording below. Previous webcasts have gone into great detail on the features and processing of somatic… Read more »

VarSeq 2.2.0 Release Notes

         October 23, 2019
ClinVar

VarSeq 2.2.0 was released today and this a stable release full of upgrades and polishes. Some of the newer features include the ability to store and include AMP Cancer assessment catalogs on VSWarehouse, quicker accessibility to common annotations plotted in GenomeBrowse, and the addition of all of our standard templates for the GRCh38 genome assembly. Many of the polishes were… Read more »

Copy Number Variants Using AMP Guidelines

         October 10, 2019

The common approaches to detecting copy number variants (CNVs) are chromosomal microarray and MLPA. However, both options increase analysis time, per sample costs, and are limited to the size of CNV events that can be detected. VarSeq’s CNV caller, on the other hand, allows users to detect CNVs from the coverage profile stored in the BAM file, which allows you… Read more »

Oncogenicity Scoring in VSClinical

         October 1, 2019
Oncogenicity Scoring in VSClinical

Before examining the clinical evidence associated with a specific mutation, a clinician must establish that the variant is likely to be a driver mutation which generates functional changes that enhance tumor cell proliferation. Our recent blog series “Following the AMP Guidelines with VSClinical” briefly mentioned how the oncogenicity scoring system in VSClinical could be used to automate and assist the… Read more »

Variant Interpretation with VSClinical: RET-KIF5b Gene Fusion

         September 24, 2019

Gene Fusion Background Gene fusions are hybrid genes that result from translocations, interstitial deletions, or chromosomal inversions that can lead to constitutive gene activation and result in increased or abnormal protein production. Increased or abnormal protein production subsequently can play an important role in tumorigenesis and thus identifying and evaluating this type of biomarker is important in the cancer workspace…. Read more »

Automating & Standardizing Your NGS Workflow: Part IV

         September 10, 2019

We have covered a lot of ground in this Automating & Standardizing Your Workflows blog series. First, we saw how to perform secondary analysis with Sentieon to generate the necessary VCF and BAM files for tertiary analysis in Part I. The implementation of VSPipeline allowed for rapid import and project generation for a predefined cancer gene panel project template in… Read more »

Following the AMP Guidelines with VSClinical: Part II

         September 5, 2019

VSClinical  users can interpret and report genomic mutations in cancer following the AMP guidelines which we’re demonstrating in this “Following the AMP Guidelines with VSClinical” blog series. Part I introduced the hands-on analysis steps involved in creating a high-quality clinical report for targeted Next-Generation Sequencing (NGS) assays. We reviewed sample and variant quality, including the depth of coverage over the target regions by the sequencing performed for each sample. Now, we are ready to… Read more »

Automating & Standardizing Your NGS Workflow: Part III

         September 3, 2019

In our last part of this series, we showed how to run a pre-built workflow template via VSPipeline to automatically import and filter sample variants to streamline the search for clinically relevant variants. Now, we can deep-dive into our filtered, pathogenic variants to fully understand and capture their final classification and interpretation. Filtered Germline Variants for ACMG Guidelines The VSPipeline… Read more »

Customer Publications Throughout Summer 2019

         August 26, 2019
customer

We are always excited to see how our software is used to support research and enable precision medicine. We believe that our customer’s success is ultimately our success! This summer was filled with many wonderful publications from across the globe and we are proud to have been a part of them. Here are just a few from each month: June… Read more »